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There you are - masonry bees. There are over 270 different types of bee found in the UK. Beekeepers should do their best to encourage bio diversity. (Mosquitos excepted)

Just be quick as you can. If you hang around too long they will get p*ssed off.

Shrubs def. Trees take for ever to grow. Cotoneaster is good. There should be some real bargains once the lock down is lifted.

All five safely through One borderline survival with an unsealed supercedure cell. Fingers crossed she'll find some drones to mate with. An experienced beekeeper/association member lost 10 out of 30+. Cause still unknown:(

I cut out a piece from scrap wood and press it in. Doesn't have to be too accurate - the bees propolise any gaps. Two minute job. Why replace with mesh when the whole floor is open plan?

Some of the frames have holes. Gravity does the rest!

Looking through the stack of super boxes they seem to have been host to quite a lot of wildlife. A few slugs, one or two dead bees in cells, spiders' webs and what looks suspiciously like mouse droppings. How much of the clean up job can be left to the bees? Some of the wax is a bit grubby. Can...

Winter wheat round here mostly drowned but but OSR seems ok apart from bird damage.

Chop the leylandii.

Call this a pandemic? Now, how about bubonic plague - that was a proper pandemic!

Can bees sting through these? Do you go for the stronghold +?

I swapped the wood floor on an acquired hive for an omf. The wood floor had water on it. I wonder whether that is the cause of the great ventilation debate. Any water above an OMF just runs through.

Most of this is just good hygiene practice you should be following anyway.

Last year I ran my brood boxes with wall to wall frames but they get jammed in hard with propolis. So this year I want to reduce frames by one. I was going to add a dummy board, but on second thoughts a follower board might be better. So what do you use dummy boards for?

Took the plunge today as I had to change a floor. Two hives going like a train, packed with bias. So I'll be looking at adding supers next week. No 3 not so strong but a reasonable amount of brood. Maybe a late starter. None of these on OSR so I haven't a clue what they're finding.

Just outside Boxford.

It seems like a lot of members are already opening up brood boxes for inspections. Is it too early? Round here daytime temperatures are only just starting to touch 14/15 deg, and I have been holding off anything more than a quick peek to feed etc. until next month. What is the risk of swarming...

Yes, quite so. But how do you maintain two metres distance from a swarm when you are trying to recover it?

Must make Bailey frame changes a lot simpler as well:)

Like the idea of putting the hive number on the front so the bees know which one to go home to. I put the numbers on the back so I can check without going in front.